What kind of person can live in total isolation for years without going insane?

Question

How would you define this person?

Answer 1

Perhaps someone who is insane already. My dad is much like that.

Answer 2

I regret to inform you that all isolation leads to death eventually. Even the most hardcore loner begins to realize how shallow and boring a life is without social variability.

With only one, you will achieve close to perfection, but with two or three or four, the percentage error triples per person. Error is what makes our life interesting. If everyone did the same thing the same way flawlessly, no new ideas would be created and monotony would be there

Inner peace is not the answer. Inner peace alone does not create happiness, although it is necessary to lead a successful social life (irony).

Eventually the human mind begins to lose focus and care in what it is doing. It slowly loses its grip on reality, and goes insane, resulting in death.

Hope I didn't depress anybody... there really wasn't any other way I could put it.

Answer 3

A whacko!! - sorry, couldn't help myself... I am a people person who loves being alone too.. but, on some level, I feel that life is our own personal pathway to death and that there is no particularly sane way to go about this to begin with - - and therefore, we must all be whackos.. the only question that remains for me, is how to be happily whacko a larger % of the time.. Though, oft heard and never believed when I was younger, being older, now 56, is truly the happiest time of what has been a very good life... call me crazy - or wacko, if you will.. ok, does this answer the question - or at least justify the answer?

Answer 4

Yama Bushi is a Japanese Buddhist term that was once used in centuries past but few Buddhist monks do so these days. For a time it was standard for anyone professing to be a true Master in various Buddhist studies including Swordsmanship. Also you might try reading Han Shan, meaning Cold Mountain, who chose renunciation and wrote many poems on the Mountain walls and died there without a trace. In the west there were also hermits but save Thoreau or how ever you spell his name, they were rarely famous!

Answer 5

We are social creatures, we need over people. Its a simple fact of life and although it is not a definite that your "isolation" could become detrimental, continuing this path and these feelings life will only become more difficult. Even in the face of fear, ALL humans CRAVE for social interaction, no matter how hard you try to suppress it. Civilization was not built on the shoulders of a single man crawling out of his cave. No, it was made when one man decided to bring his friends along to help him build it. This is the way of life, to be amongst others.

Answer 6

Supposedly no one can, according to a psychology professor at McKendree College. (I attended the school.)
But, in my unprofessional/uncertified opinion, of all the disorders I learned the person with avoidant personality disorder seems most compatible with total social isolation.

Answer 7

You asked 'how would you define this (type of person) ? My definition would be a person who is ' intelligent, spiritual, grounded, one who can 'see' with others overlook, hear / pay attention to what others block out . . . a person who can see interest, beauty, wonder in life itself. A person who can tune in to and 'communicate' with other aspects of life . . . music, nature, visuals. A person who can, in this current state of life, see and appreciate the simple, free pleasure of life. One who can connect with the spiritual, soulful connectedness with the One.

Answer 8

are we talking deep space here or like in a desert or something? i mean, there is life everywhere. "total" isolation is only available in a handful of remote locations on this globe. most of them very cold.

Answer 9

only a self realised yogi can remain in total isolation for eternity.

Answer 10

A schizoid or schizotypal personality type. Especially, the former.